Tag Archives: fitness

I have always despised running and I generally don’t follow a strict “training program” simply because I enjoy exercising and don’t have a specific goal to achieve with it. Now there are times when I have Spartan Races or other mud runs coming up and I will alter my training slightly to suit their demands. But then again, I’ve never taken on the task of running a half marathon distance Spartan Race and chased that with a full marathon eight weeks later!

On September 13, 2014 I will be running my first Spartan Beast which is a 13+ mile obstacle race with trails, mountains, mud, water, barbed wire, walls, ropes, spear throws etc. It is one of the most defining tests of what the primal human is capable of as it tests your endurance, strength, skill, and resolve. And then in November I have the Surfer’s Point Full Marathon. Two very demanding runs for someone who has pretty much always hated running!

I have done numerous Spartans and other mud runs as long as 12 miles and have pretty much just “shown up” meaning that I didn’t really cater my training to what was ahead of me. And for many of these races, especially the longer ones, I suffered through them. I have never had a “did not complete” but I very rarely finished a race and felt like I performed to the best of my abilities. That doesn’t sit too well with me, especially since I’m my own toughest critic. So I have taken it upon myself to adopt more of an endurance training system to help me accomplish my goals and upcoming races. I will say that 5 weeks into my endurance training I am starting to really enjoy running, especially the trail runs where it’s early in the morning and there’s nobody else on the trails. It’s extremely peaceful even with my headphones blasting some old Killswitch Engage tunes!

Here is a list of what I’ve learned about endurance training…… formerly known as “My Arch Nemesis”

1. I can actually run!

I think my biggest hesitation to running before was that I never felt like I could do it well. Generally running isn’t something that 200 lb men excel at!

2. I can still get my high intensity workout in:

While a long run is very exhausting, the recovery is relatively short. And after about a 10-15 minute recovery period after my hour long run, I am totally capable of tearing up a short high intensity workout. One of my recent favorites is 5 rounds of the following circuit. 10 Kettlebell swings, 5 Pull Ups, 10 Burpees.

3. I can spend even more time with my daughter:

I sometimes will run with my soon to be two year old daughter. The jogging stroller is well designed and probably can’t be improved much but it still adds a new dynamic and difficulty to the run. I have two separate time standards when I run, They are With or Without a stroller. I am usually at least a minute/mile slower with the stroller.

4. It can still be a social workout

My history with working out and training has always been very social. I have always been able to train harder and more effective when I have people all around me. It’s not that I’m super competitive, but I lack motivation when I’m by myself

5. I’ve stopped listening to all the haters

The fitness community can be very black or white when it comes to long distance running. With the fast twitch guys saying that running in unnatural and it will destroy your joints and your muscles with shrivel up and disappear. And the runners saying that everyone else is a bunch of meatheads and are too lazy to put in the effort to become a runner.

All in all, I’m up for a challenge. I’m not saying that I will turn into an endurance junky but I love exploring all corners of fitness. If I’m not trying new things and pushing my boundaries than I’m just being stubborn and stagnant!

The Kung Fu Panda is an overweight jolly bear that has dreams to be the greatest Kung Fu’er ever! Nothing could deter him from reaching his full potential but himself. He was filled with doubt, poor self control, and straight up stupidity! But one day his father told him what the secret ingredient was in his famous “secret ingredient soup”…………. NOTHING. That’s right there was no secret ingredient he just lead people to believe there was, which built up a mystic about his product that kept people coming through the door day after day! And from that point on Panda knew he could be or do whatever he wanted as long as everyone else believed that there was something SPECIAL about his skills!

Well guess what! Much like Panda’s family soup, there’s no “SECRET” formula for fitness. I know I know, that can’t be possible right? But there is a universal formula that transcends all modalities of training and that’s to work, work, work, and work. And after that work some fricken more!

Some may argue that Crossfit is the superior training program as others will say that endurance sports are even better. Maybe powerlifting is better than kettlebell training? Is it possible that bodybuilding is better than TRX suspension training?

Sure, crossfitters will crush an endurance athlete at crossfit but when an Iron Man athlete crosses the finish line chances are real good that the crossfitter couldn’t even be seen on the horizon.

A powerlifter might deadlift twice as much weight as a kettlebell athlete but ask a powerlifter to do as many reps as possible in two minutes of the kettlebell snatch and they may be taken to the hospital with a heart attack!

Try and get a bodybuilders body with a suspension trainer, or try and get the extreme core strength you achieve from suspension training from traditional dumbbell and machine exercises.

The moral of the story is simple. Do what you makes you happy. And do it as good as you possibly can. Don’t listen to the BS out there, a general rule for me is if someone says they have the “secret” to this or a “special” that, it usually means they don’t have anything new or even special at all.

If you like to run than run, if you want to move as much weight as possible overhead than try Olympic lifting or Crossfit, if you want to lift a fire truck off of a Hyundai after a traffic signal malfunction than take up powerlifting, if you want extreme relative strength try TRX or calisthenics.

As with all things in life, don’t buy into the HYPE, chances are the only thing that’s going to get thinner is your wallet!

PS. Try a Spartan Race. It changed my life and who knows, you might like it too!

It’s been a little bit since I last updated this blog. (I won’t lie, writing isn’t my strong suit!) But I have been very busy both with my personal training business and also with 5 for 5.

Did you know that having a bruised rib sucks?! Well it does. I was unlucky enough to take a hard body shot while doing some boxing drills the other day and now I’m very limited with my movement and weight lifting. Unfortunately this makes it a little tough to shoot my 5 for 5 workout videos but I should be able to tough it out pretty soon and get back on track. I will be back soon as my thick skull doesn’t let me stay still very long.

Sand hill Sunday has been continuing it’s awesome streak. This week I had six first timers on the hill and it was a pretty epic day. It was the last weekend before the big Monterey Spartan Beast race so naturally it was a Spartan themed workout that didn’t disappoint!

We did a burpee ladder workout which saw the Sand Hillers doing 100 burpees by the time they reached the top of the hill. Two lucky Spartans even carried a 50 pound bucket of sand all the way to the top.

And what may have been the most memorable moment of the day was when Will Smith (who happened to be there working out with his trainer) started cheering on fellow 5 for 5’er Karen as she was reaching the summit of the sand hill. It’s not every day that you have a huge mega celebrity screaming your name in support of what you’re doing!

I had a great time yesterday kicking of my Sandhill Sunday workout program.

There’s nothing quite like putting in hard work with a great group of people while overlooking the pacific ocean. I brought out all the toys for yesterday’s workout. We started out with a dynamic warm up, than went straight into a 5 station circuit. The circuit had tire flips, tire drags, bucket carries, agility work, and battle ropes.

After completing three rounds of the circuit is when the real workout started! Everyone had a tire with which they had to throw over their heads up the hill alternating between a snatch style throw and a shoulder press throw. Everyone did an amazing job and when we got to the top we all just relaxed and enjoyed the view of the ocean from a couple hundred feet in the air.

I will be there every sunday starting at 10 am…. I hope to see some of my interwebers out there!

Recently Men’s Health Magazine had an article on this crazy new push up Drew Brees has been doing. (photo above)

With feet suspended in a TRX strap he performs an explosive push up and extends both arms out to the sides and catches himself before face planting on the ground. Now this is a pretty difficult move but not the worst imaginable exercise. This is what I like to call a skill move as it doesn’t just take brute force to complete the push up.

A friend of mine shared this article with me on facebook and they were clearly in awe of the movement (since that was the writers objective), I had never done it before but knew it was something I could handle. So I grabbed my trusty little camera and headed out to the garage to record. And to my surprise I was able to hit the push up on the first try! It was tough and even worse than the physical aspect was the mental, it just felt like I was going to smash my face on the concrete (luckily for me that didn’t happen, this face can’t handle anymore trauma).

So the moral of the story is, don’t be scared until you try it. You may even surprise yourself!